State v. Ahreshien

2022 Ohio 2809
Ohio Court of Appeals·Decided August 12, 2022·No. L-21-1243·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO SIXTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

LUCAS COUNTY

State of Ohio Court of Appeals No. L-21-1243 Appellee Trial Court No. CR0201802692 v. Hussam A. Ahreshien DECISION AND JUDGMENT Appellant Decided: August 12, 2022

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Julia R. Bates, Lucas Count Prosecuting Attorney, and Lauren Carpenter, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Hussam A. Ahreshien, Pro se.

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PIETRYKOWSKI, J.

{¶ 1} Appellant, Hussam A. Ahreshien, appeals the judgment of the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas, denying his petition for postconviction relief. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I. Facts and Procedural Background {¶ 2} On June 20, 2019, a jury found appellant guilty of one count of abduction in violation of R.C. 2905.02(A)(2), a felony of the third degree, one count of domestic violence in violation of R.C. 2919.25(A), a misdemeanor of the first degree, and one count of rape in violation of R.C. 2907.02(A)(2), a felony of the first degree. The trial court sentenced appellant to a total prison term of seven years.

{¶ 3} The facts of the case have been set forth in our decision in State v.

Ahreshien, 6th Dist. Lucas No. L-19-1184, 2021-Ohio-1223, ¶ 4-18, appeal not accepted, 163 Ohio St.3d 1506, 2021-Ohio-2401, 170 N.E.3d 898, as follows:

Appellant is an Iraqi-born citizen who worked for the American military, in Iraq, as an interpreter. Appellant, his wife “Q.S.,” and their two children moved from Iraq to Texas in 2014.

Q.S. described a terribly-unhappy marriage in which she lived in constant fear of appellant. Based upon his mistreatment of her, Q.S.

returned to Iraq in 2016. At the urging of her family and based upon appellant’s promise that he would treat her better, which included allowing her to learn to speak English and to drive, Q.S. came back to the United States in 2017. By that time, appellant had relocated from Austin, Texas, to an apartment on Holland-Sylvania Road in Sylvania, Ohio.

According to Q.S., life did not improve, and she described how her day-to-day existence was controlled by appellant. Testifying through an interpreter, Q.S. explained that she was never allowed to learn to speak English beyond the rudimentary level. Likewise, appellant did not teach her to drive, or even allow her to leave the apartment without him, requiring her, for example, to watch her children from the window when they walked to the bus stop and to launder the family’s clothes in the apartment, rather than using the complex’s laundry facilities. Q.S. claimed not to have a key to their apartment and rarely left, unless accompanied by appellant, and she denied knowing the name of their apartment complex or street address. When Q.S. returned from Iraq in 2017, appellant confiscated her important papers like her passport and social security card.

Appellant even forbade Q.S. from talking to their neighbors or having anyone inside. Q.S. testified that when she befriended a woman who lived in the same apartment complex and the woman knocked on the door, appellant “yell[ed] at her” and said “‘don’t ever come back here again.’”

Appellant told Q.S. that “you’re only but a maid in my life,” and that her only role was to “serve[ ] him.”

Q.S. testified that she had a cell phone that she used to speak with her mother in Iraq. According to her, appellant monitored those calls from his computer, and he forbade her from talking to anyone else on it, even her own family. On May 1, 2018, appellant came home and accused Q.S. of having “some women” over to celebrate Q.S.’s birthday and further claimed that they had given her a cell phone as a gift. The appellant then “started beating” her by “slam[ming] [her] head against the wall.”

Appellant also “hit [her] on the arm” leaving a “big bruise” and delivered “one big blow” to her stomach. He also “scratched” Q.S., and the scratches were still visible at trial, according to Q.S. When the children began to cry, the appellant left the apartment, and soon, a couple—named Osamah and Hadia Al-Musawi—arrived. According to Q.S., they encouraged her to leave with them. Q.S. accepted the offer, but the next day, appellant picked her up from their home at 7:00 a.m. and said, “it’s time to come home.”

Q.S. feared “a lot more problems” if she refused, so she returned even though she “didn’t really want to go.” After the beating, Q.S. felt “dizzy,”

and though she asked appellant to take her to the doctor, he refused. After they separated, Q.S. began treating with a neurologist, and she testified that, as a result of her head injury, she was “still receiving therapy and treatment.”

While Q.S. occasionally was allowed to go to the Mosque, she was “forbidden from interacting with any women there” and was “absolutely forbidden” from talking to men. Instead, she had to stay “in the daycare area to take care of * * * the kids there.”

At the urging of his friend, Osamah, appellant allowed Q.S. to attend some classes at Water for Ishmael, which is a local organization devoted to “welcoming * * * people from other nations * * * to empower them with skills to become successful,” by for example, teaching them to speak English. The executive director there, Janelle Metzger, testified that the organization has “six levels of [English] instruction.” When Metzger met Q.S. in the summer of 2017, Q.S. was at the “low” end of that range.

According to Metzger, Q.S. did not personally choose what courses to take;

rather appellant chose them for her. Metzger saw Q.S. there regularly through May of 2018 but not after that. She became concerned by her absence based upon the “pattern of control” she had witnessed appellant exert over her, and she worried that Q.S.’s “isolation was increasing.”

Q.S. explained that she stopped attending classes because, as she later learned, her friend, Hadia, had been instructed by appellant not to pick her up any more. When Q.S. asked appellant if she could return, he “lost his temper” and said “you’re idiotic, you have no education and you’re just wasting your time and you have no future.” Q.S. remained “quiet because anything [she] would say to him, he would beat [her].”

According to Q.S., the rape occurred in the early morning hours of July 3, 2018. At that time, she and her children were sleeping in the living room because it was the only room equipped with an air-conditioning unit.

Q.S. slept on a twin mattress, with one child on each side of her. At 6:00 a.m., appellant “came over” and “forced himself upon” Q.S. Q.S. “started kicking him” and saying “ ‘please * * * the kids are sleeping,’ and he just wouldn’t stop, he did what he did.” * * * Q.S. verified at trial that appellant had vaginal intercourse with her that morning, by force.

Three weeks later, on July 24, 2018, Metzger “made it a point” to go to Q.S.’s apartment because “two different members from [Q.S.’s]

community asked [for Metzger’s] help.” Q.S. described herself as “tired”

and “exhausted” at the time, and upon seeing Metzger at her door, she started crying. Metzger observed that Q.S. had “lost a lot of weight” and “her overall demeanor was not well.” Q.S. asked Metzger not to call 911 but accepted Metzger’s offer to take her to the hospital.

At the hospital, Q.S. and Metzger were taken to a room “designated for domestic violence victims.” Q.S. testified that she was treated for stomach pain that caused her to “scream[ ] from pain.” Q.S. told the examining physician that the “last time” she had sexual relations with her husband was in the “beginning of July” and that it “was by force.” She also reported her husband’s physical abuse. After her examination, the police asked for her statement, which she provided through a translator.

The examining nurse, Janis Karem, also testified at trial. Karem is a forensic nurse who is also qualified as a sexual assault nurse examiner (“SANE”). She testified that, despite the use of an electronic interpreter service, the language barrier made getting Q.S.’s history “very difficult.”

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State v. Ahreshien, 2022 Ohio 2809 (Ohio Ct. App. 2022).

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